Prepare for mobile-first indexing

Mobile-first indexing means Google will predominantly use the mobile version of the content for
indexing and ranking. Historically, the index primarily used the desktop version of a page's content
when evaluating the relevance of a page to a user's query. Since the majority of users now access
Google via a mobile device, the index will primarily use the mobile version of a page's content
going forward. We aren't creating a separate mobile-first index. We continue to use only one index.

With mobile-first indexing, Googlebot primarily crawls and indexes pages with the
smartphone agent.
We will continue to show the URL that is the most appropriate to users (whether it's a desktop or
mobile URL) in Search results.

As we said,
we transition sites slowly to ensure a good experience for site owners and users. We evaluate each
site individually on its readiness for mobile-first indexing based on the best practices and
transition the site when the site is ready.

AMP and non-AMP

Your site has both AMP and non-AMP versions of a page. Users see two different URLs.

Google prefers the mobile version of the non-AMP URL for indexing. If your non-AMP mobile version
uses dynamic serving or separate URLs, follow our
best practices.

Best practices for dynamic serving and separate URLs

If your site has separate desktop and mobile content, which means you have a dynamic serving or
separate URLs (or m-dot) site, make sure you follow the best practices below
to prepare for mobile-first indexing:

Your mobile site should contain the same content as your desktop site. If your
mobile site has less content than your desktop site, you should consider updating your mobile site
so that its primary content is equivalent with your desktop site. This includes text, images (with
alt-attributes), and videos – in the usual crawlable and indexable formats.

Structured data should be present on both versions of your site. Make sure URLs in the
structured data on the mobile versions are updated to the mobile URLs. If you use
Data Highlighter
to provide structured data, regularly check the
Data Highlighter dashboard for extraction errors.

Metadata should be present on both versions of the site. Make sure that titles
and meta descriptions are equivalent across both versions of your site.

Additional best practices for separate URLs

If your site has separate URLs (also known as m-dot), there are additional best
practices you should follow.

Verify both versions of your site in
Search Console to make sure you have access to data
and messages for both versions. Your site may experience a data shift when Google switches to
mobile-first indexing for your site.

Check hreflang links on separate URLs. When you use rel=hreflanglink elements for
internationalization, link between
mobile and desktop URLs separately. Your mobile URLs' hreflang should point to mobile URLs, and
similarly desktop URL hreflang should point to desktop URLs.

Ensure your servers have enough capacity to a handle potential increase in
crawl rate on the mobile version of your site.

Verify that your robots.txt directives
work as you intended for both versions of your site. The robots.txt file lets site owners specify which parts of a
website may be crawled or not. In most cases, sites should use the same directives for both mobile
and desktop versions of their sites.

Make sure you have the correct rel=canonical and rel=alternate link elements
between your mobile and desktop versions.